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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Logan, Utah » Poisonous Plant Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #236978
Title: Culture and Identification of Endophytic Fungi from Oxytropis glabra DC

Author
item PING, LU - INNER MONGOLIA NORMAL UNV
item CHILD, DENNIS - COLORADO STATE UNIV
item MENG-LI, ZHAO - INNER MONGOLIA NORMAL UNI
item Gardner, Dale
item GUI-FEN, LU - INNER MONGOLIA NORMAL UNI
item GUO-DONG, HAN - INNER MONGOLIA NORMAL UN

Submitted to: ACTA Ecologica Sinica
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/17/2009
Publication Date: 1/1/2009
Citation: Ping, L., Child, D., Meng-Li, Z., Gardner, D.R., Gui-Fen, L., Guo-Dong, H. 2009. Culture and Identification of Endophytic Fungi from Oxytropis glabra DC. ACTA Ecologica Sinica. 20(1):53-58

Interpretive Summary: Locoweed (Oxytropis glabra) is a poisonous plant found throughout the Inner Mongolia rangelands and considered one of the most important poisonous plant problems of the region. The toxin in the locoweed is the known alkaloid called swainsonine. It is proposed that the toxin in locoweeds is produced by an endophytic fungus growing within the plant. The endophytic fungus was isolated from the locoweed plants of Inner Mongolia and then described microbiologically and characterized using molecular biological procedures. The description and genetic character of the fungus was describe and used to classify the fungus as similar to Embelisia species.

Technical Abstract: The Oxytropis glabra DC. is an important poisonous plant species in Inner Mongolia steppe. In this research the endophytic fungi from O. glabra DC. were studied both by microbiological and molecular biological techniques. The results showed as follows: The in vitro cultured endophytic fungi displayed round, raised, with uniform margin and radial growth colonies which grew slowly. Later a black brown pigment was secreted in each colony. The conidia were near cylindraceous with dark transverse septa thicker than conidial walls. The septa numbers varied from 1 to 5. The sequences of 5.8S rDNA/ITS from 10 strains of O. glabra DC. were highly similar to that of Embellisia sp. L12, which indicated the endophytes might belong to Embellisia.